For Ontario industries, Olympic-size pool full of water costs less than $10

Ontario industries are getting off too cheaply when it comes to the water they use and should be charged more, Ontario’s acting environmental commissioner says in her annual report.

“Not only do most industries get a total free ride, but the few industries that do pay are charged only $3.71 for every million litres of water,” Ellen Schwartzel cautioned in the 175-page report released Tuesday.

“This small charge works out to less than $10 for enough water to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool,” added Schwartzel, who is filling in while a replacement for retired commissioner Gord Miller is hired.

She urged the environment ministry to be more “open and transparent” when issuing water-taking permits, noting that only about 25 per cent are posted for public comment on the province’s online environmental registry.

Permits shrouded in secrecy include those for municipal or agricultural uses, or permits that are for less than a year despite the fact that “many are for high-risk uses.”

Schwartzel warned more public scrutiny is needed because, “there are indications that increasing water demand from a growing population is reducing the baseline water flows from some streams and rivers.”

She cited the Grand River watershed as being “periodically stressed” by low water levels, along with East Holland River near Lake Simcoe, which has been “declining for decades.”

“We can no longer take our province’s water supplies for granted.”

The report also includes calls for the province to take quicker action to save birds being killed in large numbers flying into Toronto skyscrapers on migration routes and for the ministry of natural resources to buy more sensitive lands in fast-growing southern Ontario, where some species are at risk.

In the last five years, the land acquisition budget has fallen to just $1,000 from $5.1 million, Schwartzel said.

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity calls for Ontario to set aside 17 per cent of land to be protected by 2020, but provincial parks and conversation lands amount to just over 10 per cent now, she added.

As well, many provincial parks are becoming “degraded” by heavy use and invasive species of plants.

“These problems in our parks are largely going unaddressed,” Schwartzel warned.

Original Article
Source: thestar.com/
Author:  Rob Ferguson